French illustrator Thomas Danthony’s is known for creating beautifully crafted digital images that have led to commissions for The New York Times, Google and Penguin books. Earlier this year Thomas decided to relocate from London and set up his studio in Barcelona. As part of Handsome Frank's ongoing 'a little film about' series we decided to follow him to his new home city with a camera crew.

Simon Prades was asked by Bloomberg Businessweek to illustrate a powerful cover story by a North Korean defector. Distinct from their usual style, Bloomberg opted to use conceptual artist Simon Prades to illustrate in his complex and moody technique.

Naomi McCavitt is a brilliant new artist on Artist Partners books, and she has recently been commissioned to produce this stunning image because of her beautiful painting and knowledgable skills in Botanical illustration.

Frances Castle’s bold, full colour illustrations for Around the World in 50 Ways depict a wondrous selection of famous cities and exotic, far-flung places in this “choose-your-own” kid’s travel adventure.

The Pirates of Scurvy Sands is Jonny Duddle’s swashbuckling sequel to his bestselling The Pirates Next Door and it’s OUT NOW! We welcome back the loveable pirate family the Jolley-Rogers who invite Matilda to get away from Dull-on-Sea and join them on a voyage across the sea. They land on the pirate holiday island of Scurvy Sands, run by pirates and exclusively for… PIRATES.

A few years ago, I took to an online blog in order to vent my freelancing frustrations. Work had dropped off and I wanted to share a side of the story that nobody seemed to be discussing. There's a lot of editing on social media and being a freelance creative was painted as a dreamy, idyllic lifestyle. I was experiencing something different, along with everyone else I knew. The highs were no lie and I’ve had my share of exhilarating achievements, but it’s a very temperamental existence and I hated the idea that we were all hiding the grizzly bits.

There is something extremely calming about Fiona Woodcock’s artwork — I would describe it as the hygge of picture book illustration — because each time I read one of her books, I feel so relaxed and content, gently swept up by the subtle colours and textures she creates. A Dot in the Snow is beautiful, uncomplicated, peaceful — and yet dramatic in composition of scale and landscape.

Illustrator Fiona and author Corrinne Averiss have been nominated for a Kate Greenaway Medal for Dot, and so here, Fiona talks about her creative process.

A Dot in the Snow, published by Oxford University Press and nominated for a 2018 Kate Greenaway Medal.

FW: As soon as I heard the title and Corrinne’s concept for the book — the idea of a little polar bear spotting a dot in the snow, I was totally captivated and knew I wanted to work on it.

My initial brief was to do something “artful,” which as an illustrator is a real gift!

I spent my Christmas watching wildlife documentaries to get my head around bears and snowy scenes. This was invaluable and helped to spark off compositional ideas for the landscape spreads.

We decided early on that it was important to highlight the environmental impact on the melting polar ice caps with the cracking ice spreads. This influenced the character design of the young polar bear cub Miki and we resolved to have him on all fours, rather than anthropomorphised on two legs. This slightly naturalistic approach seemed to help place him in the snowy world, where he has to contend with all the perils of the harsh environment.

I did lots of printmaking experiments to create the landscapes, printing with rubber stamps, and polystyrene from a pizza base was great for ice. I then composited all the elements digitally.

As well as the relationship between the characters, I was keen to capture their relationship with the environment, the filmic potential and the sense of space and distance covered on Miki’s epic adventure.

Corrinne sent me a link to this Björk track which she listened to whilst writing the book. It then became my soundtrack whilst illustrating it and we played it on a loop at our London book launch at the Bright Emporium!

My huge thanks to Fiona! LM

If you’d like to work with Fiona, you can reach her via her agent, Arabella Stein here.

If you’d like to know more about Fiona and her picture books, click the link below.

Fiona Woodcock — From Art Licensing to Children’s Books and Beyond…Read the blog

The BBC recently aired a documentary, Life in Polar Bear Town, which you can see here.
Photograph courtesy of the BBC. See more here.